One
evening this month, for whatever reason, I told God that it would be cool to
see more of the spiritual battle around me. Boy did I get an interesting dream
that night. Not one that I would ever want to have again. Slowly, day after
day, God opened my eyes to the spiritual battle that we live in.
I
dug out my John Piper book that I have been carrying around the world this year
and began reading where I left off 7 months ago. Low and behold, it was all
about spiritual warfare and the battlefield we live and fight in. It really
opened my eyes. So I would like to quote a lot from his book and share with you
the world we fail to acknowledge we live in – the war we pretend that doesn’t
exist.
There is not a warfare part and a
non-warfare part of life. Life is war. Life is war because the maintenance of
our faith and the laying hold on eternal life is a constant fight.
However, most people do not realize or
believe this. In fact, most people show by their actions, priorities and casual
approach to spiritual things that they believe we are in peacetime, not
wartime.
In wartime, families talk about the sons
and daughters on the front lines and write to them and pray for them with
heart-wrenching concern for their safety. In wartime, we are on the alert. We
are armed. We are vigilant. In wartime, we spend money differently – there is
austerity, not for its own sake but because there are more strategic ways to
spend money than on new tires at home. The war effort touches everybody. We all
cut back. The luxury liner becomes a troop carrier.
Until you know that life is war, you
will not know what prayer is for. Prayer is for the accomplishment of a wartime
mission. It is for war. Prayer is designed to extend the kingdom into fruitless
enemy territory. Prayer is primarily a wartime walkie-talkie for the mission of
the church as it advances against the powers of darkness and unbelief. It gives
us the significance of frontline forces and gives God the glory of a
limitless Provider. The one who gives the power gets the glory.
Sadly, what have millions of Christians
done? We have stopped believing that we are in a war. No urgency, no watching,
no vigilance. No strategic planning. Just easy peace and prosperity. And what
did we do with the walkie-talkie? We tried to rig it up as an intercom in our
houses, cabins, boats and cars – not to call in firepower for conflict with a
moral enemy but to ask for more comforts in the den.
God aims to save people from every tribe
and tongue and people and nation. But one of the great obstacles to victory is
when people are swept up into social, political, and militaristic conflicts
that draw away their attention, time, energy and creativity from the real
battle of the universe.
Satan’s goal is for no one to be saved
or come to know the truth. One of his key strategies is to start battles in the
world that draw our attention away from the real battle for the salvation of
the lost and the perseverance of the saints. He knows that the real battle is
not against flesh and blood (like Paul refers to in Ephesians 6). So the more
wars, conflicts and revolutions of “flesh and blood” that Satan can start, the
better, as far as he is concerned.
So when Paul tells us to pray for peace,
he does not mean for our prayers to be harmless domestic intercoms to increase
our civilian conveniences. He pictures our prayers as a strategic appeal to
headquarters (God) to ask that the enemy not be allowed to draw any firepower
away to decoy conflicts of flesh and blood.
John
Piper ‘Let the Nations Be Glad’
God has really opened my eyes even more this month
to the spiritual realm and to the battle that we not only face but live in and
should be fighting for. It makes me sad that so many of us miss the point. We
miss what our purpose here on earth is. We fight more for time and selfish
things than for the people we love and the God who sent His Son to die the most
horrific death on our sinful behalves. Convict us Lord! Open our eyes! Open our
hearts! Help us to understand and fight for love and for eternity! May our
hearts be aligned with yours Lord. May we be obedient to the call you have
placed in our hearts and on our lives.
